other words, Wiggins and McTighe argue that you can’t start planning
how you’re going to teach until you know exactly what you want
your students to learn.
worth being familiar with.”
What facts, concepts and principles should they know? What processes,
strategies and methods should they learn to use?
In art history this helps with relevance to the students
A second connotation for “essential” refers to key inquiries within a discipline. Essential questions in this sense are those that point to the big ideas of a subject and to the frontiers of technical knowledge. They are historically important and very much “alive” in the field.
By actively exploring such questions, the learner is helped to arrive at important understandings as well as greater coherence in their content knowledge and skill.
uncoverage of abstract or often misunderstood ideas is really learner centered and fits nicely with the CoI model in that the social perspectives present will foster a richer interpretation of topics under scrutiny